A bird’s-eye view of the floor of the Antiques in Manchester, The Collector’s Fair, which took place August 7-8.
Review & Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring
MANCHESTER, N.H. — In her welcoming letter to Antiques in Manchester, The Collector’s Fair showgoers — printed in both the show’s program and the event’s promotional section in the July 26 issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly — show manager Karen DiSaia discussed the phenomenon of “psychometry,” the ability to learn about an object or its history by proximity to it. And indeed, the event was a psychometric one in which nearly 60 dealers gave the hundreds of attending shoppers boundless opportunities to educate themselves on everything carefully sourced, researched and presented.
Held August 7-8 in the Sullivan Arena at Saint Anselm College, the event, which is known casually and colloquially as “Karen’s show,” Antiques in Manchester, The Collector’s Fair, did not disappoint. Hundreds waited patiently outside the show’s venue before it opened and streamed into the event in droves, with scenes of successful sales taking place immediately.
Energy and enthusiasm are adjectives often used to describe the show’s collectors and dealers but there was a particularly joyous vibe running through this year’s edition, now in its 13th year.
“The gate was up a bit and there was broad selling across the board,” DiSaia said in a phone call following the show. “We had more first-time attendees than ever and, on the second day, we had a tremendous number of people who had not attended on the first day. While there were a few people I expected to see who did not come, I was really happy to see many people I hadn’t seen in a while.”
An aisle of small booths, on the outside perimeter of the show, gave some dealers a more affordable option for participating in the event.
In keeping with other shows that once were strictly early Americana, the show has gradually expanded its breadth, with dealers being a bit more creative in what they bring. “I welcome it because it adds diversity,” DiSaia reflected.
DiSaia hires Emily Brandenburg (E.B. Design Agency) for the show’s social media needs, which includes not only posting frequently in the immediate lead-up to the show and during it, but also to post regularly throughout the year to keep the show front and center in collectors’ minds. Brandenburg noted the show now has about 12,000 followers between its Facebook and Instagram accounts, a number that has grown each of the five years she’s worked for the show.
Two things distinguished this show from past editions: the inclusion of nine new dealers among the 57 participating, and a new aisle of small booths, just inside the show’s floor-level exit, for young dealers or those who did not want to pay for the larger booths in the fair’s center. “It’s so important to give younger or emerging dealers a place at the table; we need to seed for the future of the industry” DiSaia said.
One of these dealers was Evan Grant, who deals in folk art in Bremen, Maine. Reached for comment after the show closed, he reported, “I had a great experience. Karen is wonderful to work with and sales were strong. I sold equal amounts both days and had my best sale at 5 o’clock on Thursday.” When we pressed him for more details about that last and best sale, he noted it was “carved architectural panels to a new client.”
Evan Grant, to the right, was one of the new exhibitors at the show. Bremen, Maine.
Across the aisle from Grant, Matt Greig had a similarly positive report. “It was very good. I was very excited to participate and I sold to a bunch of new clients, hopefully building relationships that will last. I sold across the board: early glass, sewer tiles, paintings and weathervanes were some of them.” He mentioned that one of his sales was to Maverick Manko, son of Maine folk art dealer, Kate Manko.
Greig participated at the Deerfield, N.H., show two days before Antiques in Manchester, all with different inventory. He hopes to return to Karen’s show next year.
Colette Donovan occupied one of the corner booths and she had several eye-catching pieces, including a broderie perse wedding quilt commissioned in 1840 by painter George Winter (1810-1876) that had polished chintz borders. Equally noteworthy was a maple quarter-tester bed described as “rare,” an oak busk and a circa 1820 cupboard from New England that was painted blue-gray.
At the end of the same aisle, Joy Hanes was particularly happy to have a large silhouette memorial for Princess Frederica of Prussia by Georg Heinrich Bourmester she called “the most exciting thing I have right now, I’m just in love with it!”
Front and center in the booth of Roberto Freitas were these two stenciled rocking armchairs made by Joseph Prescott Wilder of New Ipswich, N.H., circa 1835-40. Roberto Freitas American Antiques, Stonington, Conn.
Roberto Freitas was doing double duty, fielding a booth in New Hampshire a few days before the Nantucket Summer Antiques Show opened so he was not in residence in Manchester. Despite his absence, the booth had several impressive things, including Carleton Wiggins’ “Cattle at Hillside,” a Dexter running horse weathervane, a Chippendale flat-top high chest of drawers and a portrait of a young girl holding flowers that was attributed to Kingston, N.Y., circa 1750.
Bob Haneberg was making his return to the antiques show circuit after a months-long hiatus. The East Lyme, Conn., dealer brought a strong selection of inventory that included a painting of the ship Volunteer, a dressing table that descended in the Stevenson family, a canton bowl, a Willard banjo clock, several weathervanes, a Portsmouth, N.H., tea table, a Hudson River school landscape that depicted West Point and a painting of Rockport, Maine’s Pebble Beach by Emile Gruppe.
Peter Eaton was one of four dealers who occupied sizeable booths in the center of the arena. The event ended up being “a very good show for us, and I think a number of other dealers as well.” He reported selling a 5-foot sawbuck table, a William and Mary highboy, a rare early New Hampshire stand, a Queen Anne oval top tea table, an Eighteenth Century chest in crusty salmon paint, a one-drawer blanket chest that had come out of a house in Augusta the previous week, a Spanish foot side chair, a child’s Windsor highchair, three paint-decorated boxes, a Boston sewing stand of bird’s-eye maple, a good burl bowl, a terrific Eighteenth Century toaster, a good hooked rug, a half dozen small pictures and miniatures, “It was a busy couple of days! People were hungry for antique furniture — a good sign!” He noted sales went to both old and new customers, in the 50-80 age bracket.
Peter H. Eaton Antiques, Wiscasset, Maine.
Shaker specialist John Keith Russell was also set up in the center of the show, opposite Eaton, and he, too, made many sales. Items he took to the show — including several things from the Belfit collection — were posted on his website once the show opened. At press time, a good quantity had sold. From the Belfit collection, a two-drawer desk box, an oval table, a tilting chair signed by Sister Rebecca Hathaway, a stick-leg workstand, a round box inscribed “CM Caroline” and a slanted lift-lid box with an old gray painted surface. Pieces from other collections included a red-painted oval box, a swing-handled carrier, a quatrefoil tub basket, a three-drawer blanket chest and a red-painted light stand.
Grace and Elliott Snyder were kitty-corner from Russell and were a hub of activity from early on in the event. By midday on the first day, nearly a dozen pieces had traded hands, including a New England child’s highchair, candlesticks in both singles and pairs, a heart-shaped brass wall hook, turned wooden pieces, a glass bottle, three needleworks, a pair of treen candlesticks and a large ceramic bowl.
Taylor Thistlethwaite was opposite the Snyders and told us he sold some prints, a folk art metal basket, a green table from Massachusetts and a pair of urns to a young collector.
Ted and Jennifer Fuehr are American Spirit Antiques, out of Shawnee Mission, Kan. Formal and country furniture, folk art, decorative smalls and Navajo jewelry are among their specialties and they had a large booth on one side of the event. A whale’s tail wall shelf was among the first to go, while a pair of carnival stilts, in patriotic red, white and blue, were among choice offerings.
It is rare to find a pair of matching weathervanes; American Spirit Antiques had this pair of 48-inch-long examples, made by Harris & Co., Boston, which had been found in a Florida horse barn. Shawnee Mission, Kan.
Across from the Fuehrs, Dennis and Valerie Bakoledis are longtime participants who show throughout the year, including in their hometown of Rhinebeck, N.Y. The folk art dealers had an impressive carousel giraffe, horse-and-sulky, Black Hawk and running horse weathervanes and a three-dimensional carved wood horse that Dennis thought might have been a trade sign for a tack shop. It had provenance to the Perlman collection, was dated to the late Nineteenth Century and was his first time showing it.
Furniture and folk art dealer Don Heller and Kim Washam had a large booth at the end of the middle aisle. Several striking pieces in their show inventory were a full-size cast iron figure of a Native American, a carved wall eagle by John Haley Bellamy (1836-1914), a carved maple chest on chest from the shop of John and Samuel Dunlap that had exhibition and publication history and a worktable attributed to the Boston workshops of John and Thomas Seymour.
Ann Wilbanks was accompanied at the show by Johnny Cash, her Yorkie-Silky cross, thanks to a last-minute cancellation by her dog sitter. The Westport, Conn., dealer was pleased to report three sales in the first 15 minutes, to three buyers who were new to her. A mid Nineteenth Century camphorwood campaign chest and reserve-painted ship painting were among the deals she transacted.
Lederach, Penn., dealer Joseph Lodge was a late entry when another dealer was unexpectedly unable to attend. Lodge stepped up and filled a long booth at the end of the arena with quilts, weathervanes, painted and formal furniture, paintings, stoneware, pantry boxes and more. Within a few hours, a shoe-foot hutch table and gamecock weathervane both sported red sold tags.
Daniel and Karen Olson, Newburgh, N.Y.
Lodge’s neighbors on the floor were Daniel and Karen Olson, who were busy restocking and rehanging their booth when we came through, shortly after noon on the first day. Among the things the Newburgh, N.Y., dealers had written slips for were an Eighteenth Century oval table, two stands, a painted six-board chest, a circa 1800 open cupboard in original red surface, a warming pan, a Sandwich green glass lamp, a redware jar, a set of six treen custard cups and — to one client — “most of our pantry boxes.” A Connecticut Chippendale chest of drawers was on hold for another client.
The show got off to a good start with Hilary Nolan of Falmouth, Mass., who shared he’d sold a green bench, a bucket bench, a hat box, a redware bowl, a stoneware jug and an hourglass, all within the first hours of the event.
“She’s sort of our star,” Phyllis Sommer said, referencing a Liberty Goddess weathervane by William Henis that was getting a lot of attention. According to the lot card, it was one of less than six to come to market in the past 20 years; its large size, impressive color and surface gave it the potential to be the pinnacle of any collection. Though the Searsport, Maine, dealer had not sold the Liberty weathervane when we were in the booth, we did notice other things that she and Dennis Raleigh had sold, notably a painted cast iron pig, deer and horse weathervanes, a portrait of a child and a bowfront chest of drawers.
Jane Langol had an Amish Bars quilt, a circa 1980s carving of Adam and Eve by Earnest Patten and a model of a house, which was waiting to go to its new home. Medina, Ohio.
A young woman from New York City made an impulse purchase of a painting from Jane Langol. It was one of several sales the Medina, Ohio, dealer transacted in the first hours of the show, including a “Dairy Farm” sign to a woman whose family had owned a dairy farm, a house model and, to a repeat customer, two quilts.
If shoppers were looking for small objects, Mo Wasjelfish, Leatherwood Antiques, was the booth to visit. With a few exceptions, most of his inventory could be carried out single-handedly and he offered a veritable feast for the eyes. “Colorful” would be an apt description of his booth, which were fronted by a pair of large brightly painted yellow tin chicks that looked like giant Peep candies, with some rustic patina. The tiniest wares were in a glass case and one side of his booth had a nautical theme with woolies, half-hull models, a mermaid whirligig and a sailor weathervane. In a back corner, a stepped arrangement of carved animals, including Black Forest dogs, bears and deer held court.
Toy dealer Michael Paul Gunselman, occupying an end booth along the perimeter, reported sales of tin toys, cast iron banks, a mantel, a large cast iron rooster, a Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel and a Julius Chen roller coaster. While we were in the booth, we watched him sell an Atlas tire sign that was on the outside of his booth.
DiSaia confirmed that the 2025 show will take place August 6-7; she also took the opportunity to dispel rumors that she was selling the show. “That’s certainly not the case; I have no intention of doing that or quitting.”
For additional information, www.antiquesinmanchester.com.
